The Butterfly Effect
by dragonflybeach
Summary: He saved her life, but at what cost? The sequel to my time travel story Do Over.


A/N - this is the sequel to my story Do Over. If you don't read it first, this probably won't make sense. I hadn't intended to do a sequel, but the plot bunnies had other ideas.

* * *

Three days ago, Draco Malfoy knew who he was.

Then he went into the past to save Luna Lovegood.

He was gone an hour. One hour to save her life, to stop her from being captured by the Death Eaters, to stop her from being tortured in the dungeon of Malfoy Manor, to prevent the post-traumatic stress disorder that had led to her self-destruction.

He had succeeded. He kept her off the train and sent her into hiding, so the Death Eaters didn't find her.

He had saved her life.

In the process, he destroyed the life he had known.

His first clue that something was out of place had been when he returned to Malfoy Manor to find the house dark and the furniture covered with old white sheets. He had apparently caused some disturbance trying to find out what was going on, because the lone house elf who still lived in the little room off the kitchen had summoned the Aurors.

Harry Potter and Draco's cousin the metamorphamagus who married his former professor-slash-werewolf had appeared in the floo. Except it couldn't really be her, because she had died in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Draco had demanded to know what was going on, why someone had closed up his house as if he were going on an extended holiday.

_Draco, you don't live here. You haven't lived here in years._

He asked them if they were part of this elaborate prank. He demanded to know where his parents were and why they had agreed to take part in such foolishness.

_Draco, your parents are dead. They've been dead more than forty years._

Draco had looked at the two Aurors then, really looked at them, and realized there was no hint of joking in their eyes.

In fact, they looked sorry for him.

He asked them what they meant, that his parents were dead. He had eaten breakfast with them just this morning.

_Draco, your parents were killed by Voldemort. _

He felt the first flicker of fear. Harry Potter had treated Narcissa Malfoy with utmost respect since she saved his life. There was no way Potter would joke about Narcissa being dead.

Prove it to me, he challenged. Tell me how they died. Show me.

They took him outside, up the hill to the family cemetery, where they showed him side by side graves etched with his parents' names and different dates in 1998.

They stood where Danea's grave had been.

He demanded to know what had become of his daughter's grave.

_Draco, your daughter isn't dead._

He shook his head, insisting that she had been killed when the Hogwarts Express derailed in 2022.

_Draco, the Hogwarts Express never derailed. _

He shook his head harder, demanding to know where Danea was if she wasn't dead.

The two Aurors exchanged looks and asked him who Danea was.

_Draco, your daughter's name is not Danea, it's Lysandra. She's married to Crispin Scamander and has two children._

He sank to his knees, and asked to speak to his wife.

They led him to the house, where Potter was finally able to access the floo connection after several tries. The call completed, and it wasn't Astoria that answered on the other end.

It was Luna.

No, he told them, panic setting in. I want to speak to my wife, Astoria.

Potter had offered him a calming draught, and suggested they go to St Mungo's to have Draco looked over.

Luna had come and spoken to the doctor. She was sure he had picked up a horrible wrackspurt infestation, except for one thing.

She had asked what happened to Draco's wedding ring. She insisted he was wearing a different ring.

Astoria gave me a time turner, he tried to tell them.

_Draco, time turners are illegal and Astoria has been dead for years. _

The healers checked him for spell damage, and finding none, declared that some reminder of past traumas had triggered him to go mad.

By now, Draco himself had begun to wonder if he were mad.

He asked to see Scorpius, if he wasn't traveling with the Quidditch team.

_Draco, Scorpius is a scientist. He's married to Allie Longbottom. _

The mediwitch looked at him sadly and asked if he wanted to see his other children.

_Draco, you have four children - Scorpius, Lysandra, Lorcan, and Severus._

He stopped asking questions, but he absorbed everything he heard. He also pored through the old books and magazines in the psych ward common room.

With those bits and pieces, he began to puzzle out the life he had never lived, but had.

Luna had, while in exile, begun organising a guerrilla army of muggleborns and other fugitives from the Voldemort regime. They recruited Draco, who abandoned the Death Eaters to join them. Lucius and Narcissa had claimed loyalty to Voldemort and stayed behind, but had secretly been passing information to Draco. Lucius had been killed for allowing Potter, Weasley, and Granger to escape when they had been captured and brought to Malfoy Manor. Narcissa had, as she had in Draco's original timeline, lied to the Dark Lord about Harry Potter being dead.

Except in this timeline, she had paid with her life.

Draco had married Luna after the war, and had a successful career as an Auror for several years, officially retiring after his first son's birth, but still occasionally undertaking a mission when his expertise in Death Eater lore was needed. In the intervening years, he had managed a chain of potions shops.

Astoria was the one factor he could not deal with.

_Draco, Astoria had joined you and Luna. Voldemort captured her, and planned to set a trap for you. She killed herself so she couldn't be used as bait for the trap._

The irony that using Astoria's gift to save Luna had cost Astoria's life was enough to drive Draco mad, if he wasn't nearly there already.

He wallowed in the guilt for three days, refusing to see anyone.

On the third day, Luna walked into his room.

"Tell me the truth, as you know it." she instructed.

He did, telling her how she had been dead in his time. How he had played both sides against the middle in the war. How his regrets had nearly driven him mad and how his guilt had nearly eaten him alive.

He told her about Astoria's gift, how he had used it to save Luna, but never imagined it would cost him Astoria.

"You're not mad." She assured him. "I was there at the train station when a much older Draco Malfoy stopped me from getting on the train. I believe you."

He sighed in relief, but the confusion and guilt didn't dissipate.

"I know you must be overwhelmed, to be dropped back into an entirely different life. But if it's any consolation, you and I have been happy together for more than forty years now. We have four wonderful children and so far, three beautiful grandchildren, all of whom we love very much."

She reached over and squeezed his hand. "But I think a part of you always loved Astoria too. You've put flowers on her grave three times a year, every year. Our daughter's name is Lysandra Astoria."

He shook his head. "I can't ... she's dead, when she wanted me to have peace. I don't have another time turner, so I can't save her."

"Stop." Luna took both of his hands and waited until he looked at her. "You weren't meant to save everyone. In your other life, you had Astoria, but not me. In this one, it's the other way around. Don't look at the situation as you failed Astoria or let her down in some way. Look at it as if she were brave enough and strong enough to give you a different future, even if there was a chance she wasn't going to be in it. Astoria was very, very intelligent. I'm sure she realized that if you went back in the past and changed things, there was a possibility that you wouldn't end up with her. She loved you enough to want you to have peace with yourself more than she wanted you to be with her. Honour her gift by accepting the peace that she gave you."

He nodded, his throat tight, unable to speak.

She smiled and kissed him a quick peck on the lips. "Now I'm going to tell the people at the desk that you had a horrible wrackspurt infestation, which I've cleared up with a combination of armadillo bile and pomegranate juice. Then I'm going to take you home so you can meet your children."

He watched her flounce out the door with a smile on his lips.

He knew that at least twice in his life, he had completely underestimated Luna Lovegood.


End file.
